Photography
The Oscar-winning actor is also a photographer and his photos can be found in a book illustrating thetortuous history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
He is best known for his successful roles in La La Land or more recently First man, but Ryan Gosling has another passion, photography, from which was born a book on the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The 38-year-old Canadian actor knows Africa well: he has been working alongside the NGO for about ten years ” Enough Project “, which intends to put an end to the atrocities perpetuated across the continent.
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Draw attention to brutal colonization
Marked by his stays in DR Congo, he joined forces with the founder and director of the American organization, John Prendergast, and the Congolese activist Fidel Bafilemba in order to draw attention to the brutal colonization of the country of Central Africa. . The book Congo Stories: Battling Five Centuries of Exploitation and Greed discusses its tortuous history, the exploitation of its minerals and what the future holds. All illustrated by the photos of the Canadian actor.
“It is the story of unshakeable resilience, of a desire not to let ourselves be defeated, and the expression of hope”, testified the actor at a book fair in Washington. “This hope comes from people like Fidel (Bafilemba) and Chouchou”, he added, referring to journalist and women’s rights defender Chouchou Namegabe, who also participated in the project.
A book that falls just before risky elections
After a trip to northern Uganda in 2008, Ryan Gosling and John Prendergast set sail two years later for eastern DRC, which they traveled with Fidel Bafilemba. “Back then Ryan was just taking pictures like someone who had never been to a place before and wanted to keep track of what he saw.“, Tells theAFP the director of the Enough Project.
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It was during a second stay in the country, years later, that the idea emerged of a book bringing together the respective works of the three men. Congo Stories leads the reader through the pre-colonial era, the Belgian occupation, independence in 1960 and the current situation under the presidency of Joseph Kabila, whose successor will be chosen on December 23 in a risky election. It touches on many aspects, from the sale of slaves sent to work on American plantations to the continued exploitation of the country’s many natural resources.
With Belga